By law, an employee’s normal work hours may not exceed 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week, with exceptions for “variable work hours” and employees under “accountability.”

When an employee works longer than its normal work hours, or overtime, the employee is entitled to overtime pay. Further, before requesting its employees to work overtime, a company must first reach an agreement with the union or in a labor-management conference. After getting such agreement, the company may then ask for the employee’s consent every time that it needs to request overtime.

To protect employees from overworking, the law also requires that an employee’s normal work hours plus overtime do not exceed 12 hours per day and that total overtime may not exceed 46 hours in a month, unless agreement is obtained from the union or labor-management conference. With such agreement, overtime may go up to 54 hours per month, but must not go over 138 hours in any 3-month period.

The law requires that for every 7 days, one day must be a regular day-off and another day must be a rest day. Most companies should follow this requirement, except for specific industries designated by the Labor Department, and again for employees under variable work hours and employees under accountability.

Accountability

We have been talking about how employees under accountability are not afforded the protection under law regarding work hours. This kind of employees may be grouped into two categories - those in specific industries and those that have supervisory and managerial roles and receive monthly pays of more than NT$150,000.

The Department of Labor’s website lists those industries belonging in the first category, including managerial employees in banking and advertising industries, lawyers in law firms, real estate agents in real estate brokerage, lighting assistant in movie-making, tour guides in the travel industry, etc.

For purposes of determining whether the employee gets a monthly pay of NT$150,000 in the second category, only regular salary is accounted for, excluding any bonus and disregarding his annual salary. In addition, this employee must be responsible for the management and operations of the company and must have decision-making power over hiring, firing, and working conditions.
If someone in your company meets any of the above conditions, then for the restriction on work hours not to apply, the company must get the employee to agree that the normal work hours and leave requirements under law will not apply to him, and send such agreement to the Department of Labor for approval.

The information above is intended to give a general introduction only and does not constitute legal advice. If you require further assistance, please contact alicia.hsu@dentons.com.tw (August 2020).